St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-04-02
FRANCES AND DEATH.
WHY PEOPLE DO NOT RECOVER CON-
SERIOUSNESS IN THE GRAVE.
New York Herald.

New York Herald.
"There is no excuse for any one be-
ing buried alive" said DR.. w. A. Ham
mond. A Herald reporter had called
on him in reference to the burial alive
Of Miss Stickney, of Indianapolis, who
was taken out OF vault and found to
be in q trance state, and did not die
until several weeks after her funeral.
NO." he continued, there is no ex-
cuse for it. The tests OF death have
been brought down to such point that
any competent physician would have
no difficulty in accurately determining
whether or not death had taken place
docs decomposition always set in
after death "
Invariably. provided the body is
not frozen. OF course you can freeze it
and keep it for years before it will de
compuse-just as fish are kept frozen
for market. The almon that you eat
now were eau; hit last spring, and have
been frozen ever since. They are just
as good.
did you imagine that there is any
| foundation to the belief Of mnhy that
| people are sometimes buried alive"
oh, have no doubt of 1t. | have
known of its being done, but it is not
10y any means of frequent occurrence
not neally so frequent as many people
imagine. The physician is entirely to
blame when it does occur. The fact
over in the collins lead people to be-
Iieve that they were buried alive. But
that's not 50. 1t is probably the work
of the gases coming from the body.
Pent up in a coffin they become very
powerful, and it is almost singular that
they do not move bodies around more
than they do"
"Then you don't take any stock in
the stories of men who come to life I'M
der the ground, of their terrible strug
giles to get free, and their horrible
death at last? :"
"That's all bosh. Poe wrote of
graveyards trembling with the strug
giles of the buried alive. That's all
hosh, too. When people are buried
alive, as they certainly have been, they
never wake up to know IT. When I'D a
trance state their vitality must be SO
week that when they begin to regain |
consciousness and to attempt to breathe |
they die of sutfncation immediate ly.
and never know that they came to life |
again. Buried for Dead they PRACTICAL
ly are dead
THAT'S consoling, at any rate" said |
the reporter, who was beginning to feel |
a little creepy" IN the gloomy room,
that in hia distorted imagination began
to seem like the interior of tomb.
The doctor did not look unlike Father
Time as he waved his cmeter.
This Miss Stickney was undoubted
" in a trance state when she was
buried" continued DR.. Hammond.
:. Were it not for the water around her
heart she might have resained con-
sciousness.'
els il possible to freeze human be-
ing up for any length of time and then
restore consciousness
"No; not with human beng. 1t
ga be done with some of the lower OF
der Of animals. Frogs are the highest
grade to which it can be carried sue
"Why can't it be done TO menu
because, no matter how warm or
,old the atmosphere is, the tempera-
ure Of human being being in good
health is always go in life. Reduce
hat temperature to the freezing point
md it would kill the person. Now, the
of frog is always the
anne as the surrounding air. Ii the
mercury goes up to 1100 the frogs ,
goes up there, too, without ;;
Ioing him any harm. In the same way .
t will go down to zero, and the frog :
lot suffer-"